So You Think You Know Philip Larkin?: A Quiz Book

By M. R. Sethi

Nothing seemed to escape the eyes of Philip Larkin, a contemporary English poet who achieved acclaim on the strength of a small body of work. While lyrically exploring the human experience, Larkin’s candid perceptions were enlivened by his acute power of observation—a unique literary talent that prompted his recognition as England’s other Poet Laureate.

In a fascinating quiz book that will appeal to both Larkin scholars and lovers of poetry and literature, retired English professor M. R. Sethi shares more than six hundred questions (with answers) that offer an opportunity to test knowledge regarding the life and works of the famous poet. Scholars and others will be tested on Larkin’s physical shortcomings, his first jobs, what he wore while mowing the lawn, why he once threatened to jump out a window, who was not one of his friends at Oxford, and much more that includes detailed questions regarding many of his poems.

So You Think You Know Philip Larkin? is a volume of questions and answers shared to test the knowledge of both scholars and poetry and literature aficionados about a famous, contemporary poet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Oct 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665710411

M. R. Sethi

M. R. Sethi is a retired English professor and freelance writer who has published twelve books and more than five hundred articles. He is an avid quizzer with experience conducting numerous quiz shows. Sethi’s quiz columns have appeared in several periodicals.

Book preview

By the same author:

The Literature Lover’s Quiz Book

A Treasury of Literary Quizzes Vol. I (Novels)

A Treasury of Literary Quizzes Vol. II (Poetry)

A Treasury of Literary Quizzes Vol. III (Drama)

So You Think

You Know

PHILIP

LARKIN?

A Quiz Book

M. R. SETHI

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Copyright © 2021 M. R. Sethi.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1039-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1040-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1041-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021915544

Archway Publishing rev. date: 10/08/2021

To

Dr Rajneesh Bahl,

an avid Larkin scholar

Contents

Introduction

1. Larkin’s Life

2. Beauty in Larkin

Interlude I

3. Mixed Bag I

4. Larkin’s Women

Interlude II

5. Animals and Birds in Larkin’s Poetry

6. Mixed Bag II

Interlude III

7. Trains in Larkin

8. Larkin’s Cityscapes

Interlude IV

9. Mixed Bag III

10. Death in Larkin

Interlude V

11. Aging in Larkin

12. Mixed Bag IV

Interlude VI

13. Pessimism, Melancholy, and Loneliness in Larkin

14. Opening Lines I

Interlude VII

15. Mixed Bag V

16. Opening Lines II

Interlude VIII

17. Closing Lines

18. Mixed Bag VI

Interlude IX

19. Time in Larkin

20. Larkin’s Novels

Interlude X

21. The Moon in Larkin

22. Mixed Bag VII

23. Just for Fun!

Epilogue

Introduction

Philip Larkin achieved acclaim on the strength of a small body of work—just four slender volumes that appeared at long intervals. But bulk is decidedly not a criterion for a writer’s greatness; content is. To quote Ben Jonson, ‘In small proportions we just beauties see;/And in short measures life may perfect be.’ Larkin’s poetry, especially his collections The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964), and High Windows (1974), present, according to X. J. Kennedy, ‘a poetry from which even people who distrust poetry, most people, can take comfort and delight’.¹

A remarkable quality of Larkin’s poetry is its deceptive simplicity that has an undercurrent of serious thought which is enlivened by his acute power of observation. Nothing seems to escape his eye, whether it is ‘an uncle shouting smut’ in ‘Whitsun Weddings’ or ‘a locked church; short terraced streets/Where kids chalk games, and girls with hair-dos’ in ‘The Building’. Larkin was a poet of humanity, and human beings were his first interest. In his poetry, Larkin attempted to explore the experiences—often uncomfortable, terrifying or seemingly vulgar—thrust upon common people.

The present book contains more than six hundred questions (most of them with detailed answers) on Larkin’s life and works. This is perhaps the first quiz book devoted solely to Philip Larkin. I hope it will appeal both to Larkin scholars and lovers of poetry in general. I have included questions on those poems of Larkin which are obscure or less popularly known.

Any suggestions for improvement are more than welcome.

M. R. Sethi

[e-mail]

1

QUIZ

Larkin’s Life

1. Philip Larkin was born on 9 August 1922 in which city situated on the banks of River Sherbourne?

2. What physical shortcoming did Larkin suffer from till the age of twenty-one?

(a) a limp in his left leg

(b) stammering

(c) involuntary shaking of his right leg

(d) flatfoot

3. To which college did Larkin go to in 1940?

(a) Trinity Hall, Cambridge

(b) Selwyn College, Cambridge

(c) St John’s College, Oxford

(d) Pembroke College, Oxford

4. Larkin was not able to pass the military medical examination because of his:

(a) stammer

(b) poor eyesight

(c) limp

(d) weak health

5. What did Larkin do with his diaries before his death?

(a) got them published

(b) donated to the library at Hull

(c) burnt them

(d) got them shredded

6. What was Larkin’s first job?

(a) college lecturer

(b) librarian

(c) editor

(d) priest

7. Larkin’s father evinced great enthusiasm for Nazism. This is borne out by the fact that:

(a) He had a statue of Hitler on his mantelpiece.

(b) He had the swastika sign on a wall.

(c) He attended two Nuremberg rallies during the mid-1930s.

(d) All of the above.

8. The day Larkin died, an eminent Indian poet was in Wales for a reading and started with memorable Larkin lines: ‘The trees are coming into leaf/Like something almost being said.’ Who was the Indian poet, and from which poem was he quoting?

9. To what can a certain ungainliness in Larkin’s physical appearance be attributed?

(a) a long back and comparatively shorter legs

(b) long legs and a short torso

(c) excessively drooping shoulders

(d) neither a nor b

10. In which of the following universities Larkin did not serve as a librarian?

(a) University of Leicester

(b) University of Glasgow

(c) University of Hull

(d) Queen’s University of Belfast

11. By the time his second novel appeared, Larkin had moved to a new job as ____________.

12. In July 2003, BBC Two broadcast a play dealing with the last thirty years of Larkin’s life. The lead role was played by Hugh Bonneville. What was the play’s title?

13. What caused Larkin to abandon the writing of his third novel, according to Kingsley Amis?

(a) writer’s block

(b) inability to conceive the whole plot

(c) fear of failure

(d) none of these

14. What was Larkin’s third job?

15. Which of the following were two of the boyhood hobbies of Larkin?

(a) collecting cigarette cards

(b) playing with model trains

(c) both a and b

(d) neither a nor b

16. Larkin had one elder sister. What was her name?

(a) Catherine

(b) Jill

(c) Leonara

(d) Penelope

17. What age was Larkin when he wrote, ‘I feared these present years, /The middle twenties’?

(a) twenty

(b) twenty-two

(c) twenty-five

(d) twenty-six

18. What was the first of many honours bestowed upon Philip Larkin?

19. In 1981, Larkin was part of a group of poets who surprised a famous contemporary poet on his seventy-fifth birthday by turning up on his doorstep with gifts and greetings. Who was the poet?

20. Philip Larkin was known by the epithet the ____________ of Hull.

(a) Saint

(b) Librarian

(c) Scholar

(d) Hermit

21. Larkin named three specific influences on his early poetry. Two of them are W. H. Auden and W. B. Yeats. Who is the third?

(a) D. H. Lawrence

(b) Dylan Thomas

(c) Seamus Heaney

(d) Ted Hughes

22. In an excellent book, Larkin: The Poet’s Plight, who writes, ‘The poet’s plight is a mysterious obligation; but it is also a common condition shared with his readers’?

23. About which place does Larkin say, ‘It is just a little wedge of England a bit off the beaten track … and the lonely place to me is always the exciting place’?

24. Where did Larkin live in Hull for eighteen years?

25. Which poem, a short elegy, did Larkin write in April 1948 after the death of his father?

26. By choosing not to marry, Larkin realised, ‘To have no son, no wife … registered the shock/Of finding out how much had gone of life, /How widely from the others.’ In which poem does he express these thoughts?

(a) ‘Self’s the Man’

(b) ‘Dockery and Son’

(c) ‘Strangers’

(d) ‘Send No Money’

27. Who or what are referred to in the following lines?

One bleached from lying in a sunny place,

One marked in circles by a vase of water,

One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her,

And coloured, by her daughter—

So